Counting device



S t. 24, 1935. R, F, KNIGHT 2,015,147 1 COUNTING DEVICE Filed March 15, 1933 15 the specified number of heels and also certain counter and surrounding a shaft 26 to which 15 PatentediSept ..24,1935 v- UNITED? STATES PATENT orrica 1 2,151" I c pN'nNG DEVICE 1 Ralph F. Knight, Beverly, Mass, assignor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Paterson,- N. L, a corporation of New Jersey Application March 15, 1933, Serial No. 666,895

2 Claims. (01. 235-98) This invention relates to counting devices and to provide an opening l6 through which articles is illustrated herein as embodied in a device parto be counted are dropped. The cover portion l4 ticularly adapted for counting wood heels. is provided with an opening l8" below which is In counting articles such as heels to be placed m un d a otary c u 20 0f e yp disclosed in shipping containers it is important that such in United States Letters Patent No. 1,47 5 articles be accurately counted. This is imporgranted October 16, 1923, on an application filed tant in the manufacture of wood heels where the in the name of Henry A. Chase. In counters of heels are ordinarily finally inspected and countthis type the numbering disks are rotated by 8. ed as they are packed. The heels are ordinarily pawl and ratchet mechanism. 10 inspected and counted by the same person and The counter is secured to a support 22 which 10 the resulting division of attention often results is securely fastened to the side walls of the frame in inaccurate counting and prevents, to a cer- Ill. The counter may be of any well-known type tain extent, careful inspection of the heels, with but preferab y is f e yp which is p d d the result that the containers do not always hold with a spring 24 secured at one end to the of the heels may not be of the required qualityan arm 28 is secured. The spring 24 operates to This condition often results in loss and annoyreturn the arm 28 to the horizontal position ance to the manufacturer. shown in Fig. 1 after the arm has been depressed An object of this invention, accordingly, is to to count an article. The forward end of the 20 provide a novel device for counting articles such arm 28 has secured thereto, by a screw 29, a 20 as heels by the use of which accurate counting is cross bar 30 which carries a number of fingers insured. To this end the invention provides a 32 (hereinafter referred to as a fork) formed novel counting device having a counter provided of wire or other suitable-resilient m'aterial. It is with a plurality of fingers arranged to receive an to be noted that the fingers 32 are upturned at article or articles to be counted, the counter being their forward ends to prevent the article to be 25 yieldably mounted on the frame of the device to counted from sliding Off Of the fi s 32 beprevent undesired oscillatory movement of the fore the arm 28 has been depressed a distance fingers when they are returned to their original sufficient to operate the counting mechanism. position after being depressed by the weight of The weight of the arm 28, the cross piece 30,

the articles to be counted, thus insuring that the and the fingers 32, as illustrated, is approximately 30 counter will register only the number of articles sixteen grams and. is counterbalanced by the actually received by the device. I spring 24. In other words, the spring 24 is so These and other features of the invention comtensioned that it operates to return the arm 28 prising certain combinations and arrangement of and the members connected thereto to horizontal 5 parts will be apparent from the following deposition to receive another article to be counted. 35 scription of a preferred embodiment of the in- The counter 20 is provided with a stop 2| which vention shown in the drawing. engages the arm 28 on the shaft 26 to prevent In the drawing, the arm 28 from moving above horizontal po- Fig. 1 is a perspective viewof one embodiment sition. The weight of the counter is substan- 40 of the invention, partly broken away to show the tially greater than the weight of the fork and, 40 partsof the device in position to receive an aras illustrated, weighs approximately 130 grams. ticle to be counted; If-the counter 20 is rigidly secured to the sup- Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing the port or cross piece 22, the momentum of the parts of the device in discharging position; and fork, when it strikes the stop 2|, may be suflicient Fig. 3 is a view partly in section illustrating to cause the fork to bounce away from the stop 5 a preferred form of mounting a counter on a 2n and oscillate. This oscillation, of course, is

support. transmitted to the counting. device thereby caus- The illustrated device embodying a preferred ing numbering disks 34 to be rotated slightly. It form of the invention is mounted in a frame It! is apparent that repeated oscillations will cause which may be secured by screws, or the like, the numbering disks to register more than the 50 to any suitable support, such as a work bench. actual number of the articles counted. In order The frame is illustrated as composed of wood to prevent such false counting, the counter 20 but it is evident that it may be made of any other is loosely and yieldably mounted upon the supsuitable material. The frame I0 is provided with Aport 22. Referring now to Fig. 3, it will be cover portions [2 and I4 spaced from each other noted that the support 22 is cut away in its 5 upper surface to receive a pad 36 of some relatively soft, yielding material, such as leather. The counter 20 is provided with a flanged base I! having four screw receiving holes therein. The base of the counter 20 is placed on the pad 36 and screws 4|] are driven through the holes in the base I! and through the pad 36 into the cross piece or support 22. The screws 40 are not driven tightly against the upper surface of the base 38 but are driven with the heads of the screws 40 just out of contact with the top surface of the base 88. In other words, the counter 20 is free to move slightly relatively to the support 22. By the use of such a mounting undesired operation of the counter is prevented and accurate counting is insured. The mass of the counter 20 is substantially greater than the mass of the arm 28, the cross piece 30 and the fingers 32. When the fork, comprising the arm 28, the cross piece 30 and the fingers 32, swings back to its original position, the arm 28 strikes the stop 2| on the counter 20. The momentum of the fork causes the counter 20 to be slightly moved. Since the mass of the counter 20 is substantially greater than the mass of the fork, the velocity of the counter 2|! and the fork moving together is proportionately less than the velocity of the fork before it strikes the stop 2|. The fork and the counter 20 move together a small distance until substantially all of the momentum of the fork has been absorbed but at the end of this movement the parts are in an unbalanced condition and the parts then move together in the opposite direction. During this movement, the velocity of the parts is small and the momentum proportionately small. The spring 24 is sumciently strong during this latter movement to hold the arm 28 against the stop 2| so that there is substantially no relative movement between the fork and the counter 20. At the end of the'retum movement the parts swing below the normal position of the fork but the parts return to normal position partly because of the yielding pad 2| and also because there is some slight rebound of the parts when the lowest point of the return movement is reached. The counting mechanism, therefore, can not be operated by the oscillation of the fork.

Although the parts of the device have been described in detail the operation of the device will now be briefly summarized. For example, if heels 42 are to be counted the operator may place a single heel or a pair of heels upon the fingers 32. The weight of the heel or heels will depress the fingers into the position shown in Fig. 2 until they engage a stop ll secured to the under side of the frame ll. When the fingers 32 are in this position the heels 42 will slide off into a box or other container. The fingers 32 will then be returned to horizontal position by the spring 2|. As previously stated, the arm 28 strikes the stop 2| on the counter 20 and the fork and counter 20 move together upwardly until the momentum of the parts is absorbed or dissipated. At the end of this movement the parts move in the opposite direction and finally come to rest. There is, therefore, substantially no relative movement between the parts after the fingers have been returned to horizontal position and false counting is thereby prevented. The parts of the device are now in position to count another article or articles.

Although the illustrated device has been described, particularly in connection with counting heels, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to counting such articles but may be utilized for counting other kinds of articles, if desired.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A counting device having, in combination, an open bottomed supporting frame, a counter yieldably mounted on said frame, said counter being provided with counting disks mounted for rotation in said counter and a shaft arranged to be rotated to operate the counting disks, an arm secured to said shaft, a plurality of relatively resilient fingers connected to said arm, said arm and said fingers being normally disl0 posed in a substantially horizontal position and arranged to be depressed by the weight of the article to be counted a distance sufficlent to rotate said shaft to operate the counting disks and to permit the article to slide 011 of said fingers and into a receptacle, and a spring operatively connected to the shaft to return said arms and said fingers into substantially horizontal position.

2. A counting device having, in combination, an open bottomed supporting frame, a counter loosely secured to said frame, said counter being provided with counting disks mounted for rotation in said counter and a shaft arranged to be rotated to operate the counting disks, a yield- 45 able pad interposed between said frame and said counter, an arm secured to said shaft, a cross bar secured to said arm, a plurality of resilient fingers secured to said cross bar, said arm and said fingers being normally disposed in a substantially horizontal position to receive articles to be counted and arranged to be depressed by the weight of the articles a distance sufficient to rotate said shaft to operate the counting disks and to permit the articles to slide off of said fingers and into a receptacle, and a spring secured to said counter and to said shaft to return said arm and said fingers into substantially horizontal position.

RALPH F. KNIGHT. 

